The American Sheep Industry Association joined other national agriculture organizations urging members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to reject the request to assess user fees for federally mandated meat, poultry and egg inspection programs, which was included in the President's 2017 budget request.

The proposal calls for a performance-based fee to charge meat, poultry and egg product companies for inspections such as food safety assessments, follow-up sampling and additional investigations due to the outbreak of disease. These fees are estimated to generate $4 million in revenue for USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service.

Since the activities that would trigger these new fees are central to the FSIS mission, the activities should continue to be funded through appropriations.

"Past attempts to impose user fees have been unsuccessful, and ASI joins the other associations in asking congress to once again oppose this assessment," stated ASI Executive Director Peter Orwick.

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